Preditores de burnout em professores do ensino superior português

Abstract

Work is one of the major dimensions of people's lives and given the increasing demands on higher education teachers, this population is subject to numerous risk factors and predispositions for developing burnout syndrome, affecting not only their professional but also their personal lives, with this phenomenon being evidenced by an imbalance between these two components of life and a decrease in self-care practices. This quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional, predictive and correlational study aims to assess and compare the level of burnout among public and private higher education teachers in Portugal and to identify predictors of burnout. Alongside these objectives, the aim is to analyze and understand the relationships between sociodemographic, professional, work-life balance, selfcare and burnout variables. Data was collected through an online questionnaire, to which 136 (60.2%) female and 90 (39.8%) male teachers responded, aged between 30 and 83 (M = 52.26; SD = 9.19), 146 (64.6%) from public education, 80 (35.4%) from private education. Results: Portuguese higher education teachers showed high levels of exhaustion and moderate levels of perceived impairment in cognitive control. Among the predictors tested, having children, higher socio-economics status, higher age and years of experience, more weekends off, greater perceived work-life balance and greater adherence to self-care practices stood out as predictors of lower levels of burnout symptoms. Conclusions: These results highlight the need to develop organizational policies that promote the well-being of teachers, emphasizing the role of the perception of balance between work and personal life and the practice of self-care behaviors in maintaining the quality of life of Portuguese higher education teachers.

Date of Award	20 Jan 2025
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Marta Pedro (Supervisor)